第一部份：Dialogues /monologues:
1、You can tell they lived during the Depression.这个句子中"tell”是断定的意思，常常把它的意思与(告知、告诉)联系在一起，脑子便转不过弯来。
翻译为： 你可以断定他们生活在那时的大萧条期。
2、He really knows how to bring a person out.“bring a person out.”是“鼓励一个人的”的意思。
翻译为：他非常善于鼓励别人/使别人振作起来。
例：to bring sb……out意思为：to make someone feel more comfident, happy, and friendly /使某人更加自信、开朗。
3、He looks like his fun to be with.
翻译为：他看起来是个很有意思的人。或，和他在一起应该会很有意思。
4、Since we’re going to recruit some staff so that we can get our new school going in time.这里的since, 和so that 是基于……原因的意思.根据意思将其译成：届时……将……以便……
翻译为：届时我们将聘请一些工作人员以便使我们的新学校及时开学。
5、Would you address character description for the commercial and industrial arts staff?
翻译为：你能够给商业与工艺美术的职员讲讲特征描述吗? arts跟前面的commercial and indutrial连在一起看，而非与后面的staff:(the commercial and industrial arts) staff.
6、There are a number of other positions to consider.“A number of”换成 “a lot of”或者是“a great many”行不行，为什么?
可以换成a lot of或a great many of,因为position是可数名词。如果这里是不可数名词，则只能用a number of代替而不能用a great many.修饰可数/不可数都行：a number of/a lot of,只能修饰可数：a great many of(与many性质一样)
7、Would you mind letting me take a look in your briefcase?将“letting me”换成“let me”行不行，为什么?
不行，mind是动词，后面不能直接跟动词原形，一般接名词(或动名词),这里的letting是let的动名词形式。
8、I’m afraid I certainly do mind, if it’s all the same to you.“Do mind”与“all the same”什么意思?
do mind: 在英语中强调动词，用助动词do(各种时态)+动词原形。all the same: 完全一样，用于强调。
如：Although you didn’t complete it in time, I appreciate you all the same.尽管你没有及时完成，我还是一样很感激你。
9、One day the life free from the harsh decrees of state-sponsored racial repression. (种族压迫)在这句话中，state-sponsored 翻译成什么意思最好?
state-sponsored：国家发起的。用于修饰racial repression(种族压迫)，是复合形容词，复合形容词的相结合。
10、The state in which she was born had laws in place waiting to characterize her as unwelcome.
翻译为：在她出生的洲有专门针对象她那一类人并将他们列为不受欢迎人士的法律。
11、Present was the usual mix that had so often accumulated into a burden too heavy for a single-parent household like the one Oprah Winfrey grew up in.
翻译为：目前，这种平常的税收会不断地压迫在家庭的身上,就象Winfrey 这样的例子。
12、One day the life free from the harsh decrees of state-sponsored racial repression.
整句话的意思是：有一天，生活可以从洲政府怂恿的残酷种族压迫中解放。
练习:
The circumstances surrounding the birth of a female infant in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on Jan.29, 1954,were not promising present was the usual mix that had so often accumulated into a burden too heavy for a single-parent household like the one Oprah Winfrey grew up in. The state in which she was born had laws in place waiting to characterize her as unwelcome, to bar her participation in otherwise accebtable social activities, to shackle her to the residue of slavery and other injustices of the past. The simple truth is that her grandmother, her great-grandmother and all the great-great-grandmothers before them never experienced one day of life free from the harsh decrees of state-sponsored racial repression.
In hindsight, it appears that her birth was an uneventful one. But at age three she was reciting speeches from church pulpits. Upon discovering books, the child delved into the written word, turning out weekly book reports for her father. Even during turbulent times, not a moment was wasted. Seeds were being planted, watered, and nurtured. On April 13, 1964, nearly an adolescent and watching television from the linoleum floor of her mother’s walk-up flat in something deep inside of her. She was watching the live broadcast of the Academy Awards ceremony and saw a young African-American actor receiving the film industry’s highest honor. Sharing in that moment and all it implied she later told me, caused her to say softly to herself, "If he can do that, I wonder what I could do?"
